English-speaking Quebecers (also known as Anglo-Quebecers, English Quebecers, or Anglophone Quebecers, all with the optional spelling Quebeckers; in French Anglo-Québécois, Québécois Anglophone, or simply Anglo) refers to the English-speaking (anglophone) minority of the primarily French-speaking (francophone) province of Quebec, Canada. The English-speaking community in Quebec constitutes an official linguistic minority population under Canadian law.[4]

English-speaking Quebeckers are not one but many ethnic groups,[5] with large emigration with Canadian provinces, an early and strong English language education program in Quebec schools, and waves of international immigration. This makes estimating the population difficult. According to the 2011 Canadian census, 599,225 (7.7% of population, including 4% Italian Canadian) in Quebec declare English as a mother tongue.

Interprovincial migration between Quebec and other provinces by Mother Tongue[10][11]

Year

French

English

Other

1971–1976

−4,100

−52,200

−5,700

1976–1981

−18,000

−106,300

−17,400

1981–1986

−12,900

−41,600

−8,700

1986–1991

5,200

−22,200

−8,600

1991–1996

1,200

−24,500

−14,100

1996–2001

−8,900

−29,200

−19,100

2001–2006

5,000

−8,000

−8,700

Total

−32,500

−284,000

−82,300

Statistics Canada uses census data to keep track of minority language communities in Canada. It has recorded mother tongue (the first language learned as a child and still spoken) since 1921, home language (language spoken at home) since 1971, and first official language learned (English or French) since 1991. In addition, conversational knowledge of English and French is documented.[5]

A considerable number of census respondents in each category cite equal proficiency, knowledge, and use of different languages. In this case, census respondents are divided evenly among the language groups involved.

As allophone immigrants (mother tongue other than English or French) generally arrive with knowledge of either English or French and eventually integrate into these two linguistic groups, first official language learned is used to determine the Official Language minority population. It is used by the federal government and Quebec anglophone community organizations to determine the demand for minority language services.[7] Specifically, it classifies members of immigrant groups who learn English before French as English-speaking. Half of the people equally proficient since childhood in both English and French are placed into each linguistic community.

The English-speaking population has shown an accelerated decline in population between 1971 and 2001. During this interval, the number of mother tongue anglophones has decreased from 788,830 to 591,365 representing a drop in its share of the Quebec population from 13.1% to 8.3%. This is attributed primarily to an exodus of anglophones to other provinces and raised questions about the sustainability of the community.[12]

Immigration from other countries and integration of allophones helped to partially alleviate the impact of this trend. In 2001, one in three immigrants to Quebec was English-speaking and settled in Montreal. This made the decrease in home-language anglophones less pronounced, particularly in the Montreal area.[13] This situation is rapidly changing as the vast majority of immigrants now adopt French as their first language: three quarters of linguistic transfers of allophones arriving between 2001 and 2006 allophones arriving have been towards French instead of English.[14]

The 2006 census showed an increase of the Anglophone population in Quebec.[15] The rise of 16,000 people (from 591,000 in 2001 to 607,000 in 2006) represents a growth rate of +2.7%, which is higher than that for the Francophone population (+2.0%) for the same period.[15] This increase is attributed to a much reduced net outmigration of Anglophones, with some 34,000 departures vs 26,000 arrivals (primarily from Ontario).[15]

Emigration to other Canadian provinces was perceived as the biggest challenge facing the continued presence of English-language communities in Quebec, particularly outside Montreal, during the 1976 to 2001 period. English-speakers accounted for half the out-migrants from Quebec as they are extremely mobile compared to their francophone neighbours because they share a language and cultural identity with most other Canadians and North Americans.[16] In a survey on the matter, English-speaking Quebecers cited limited economic prospects and politics (Quebec's language policies and the Quebec independence) as primary reasons for leaving.[17] These political factors are also cited as having led to fewer Canadians from other provinces settling in Quebec.[5]

Anglophones are also less likely to migrate within the province than Francophones and Allophones. This is due to a strong sense of belonging among those in the Montreal area, the relative lack of English-language services and institutions outside Montreal, and a weak sense of identification with Quebec.[17]

Despite a lull in this outflux during an economic boom and break from separatist governments in 2003, this outmigration had returned to established levels by 2006 and is projected to continue at these rates over the next five years[citation needed]. At the time, this forecast made researcher Jack Jedwab predict a continued long term decline of the community.[18]

A large proportion of Quebec's English-speaking population resides in or near Montreal. Most reside on the Island of Montreal, particularly in the West Island and in the western half of Montreal's urban core, where there is a network of English language educational, social, cultural, economic, and medical institutions.

The earliest English-speaking Quebecers arrived in Montreal at the beginning of the British regime in the second half of the 18th century. American merchants, United Empire Loyalists and Anglo-ScotProtestants founded Quebec's public and private English-language institutions and would represent Quebec's elite merchant and financial classes up until the 1960s; the heritage of this era remains in neighbourhoods such as Westmount and the Golden Square Mile.

Irish Quebecers established their schools, churches and hospitals in the mid-19th century in traditionally working-class neighbourhoods such as Point St. Charles and Griffintown. Separate English-language confessional (Protestant and Catholic) school systems emerged and would be guaranteed in the British North America Act in 1867 thanks to D'Arcy McGee, a prominent Irish Montrealer. In 2000, these school boards were merged into English boards.

The early 1900s brought waves of settlers from all over Europe. Jews from Poland, Romania and Russia established a large Jewish community, and integrated into the English-speaking "Protestant" schools and businesses. Italian immigrants would adopt the Catholic institutions of either the Irish or French-Canadian community. These and many other immigrant communities would initially settle along Saint Lawrence Boulevard (nicknamed "The Main"), before moving on to more prosperous suburbs such as Côte Saint-Luc and Saint-Léonard.

In the 1950s, more immigration from Europe again changed the face of Montreal. Immigrants flocked to Montreal from all across Europe, bolstering the numbers of established cultural communities, with a Greek community planting strong roots in the English-speaking community.

Immigrants of today come from all over the world and are largely more secular than members of the established English-speaking communities. Also, a larger proportion are French-speaking than before. However, immigrants from English-speaking countries such as Britain, the United States, and Jamaica usually come with a knowledge of English; Asians account for the fastest growing segment of the population, with over 26,000 Asians coming to Quebec between 1996 and 2001 and having English as their first official language spoken in 2001; as a result, over a quarter of anglophones now come from visible minority groups.[7] Some First nation peoples such as the Mohawk, the Cree,[19] and Inuit[20] also use English in their day-to-day lives and use English-language health services based in Montreal[21][verification needed]. These groups blend in easily in a community that defines itself increasingly as multicultural and bilingual. Its large diversity, mobility and access to mainstream North American society means that most anglophones in Quebec will identify themselves as Canadian or by their cultural group, and identify as "anglophone" only in the context of Quebec's French-speaking majority.[6]

Many American and Anglo-Scot merchants settled in Quebec City in the nineteenth century, but the majority of anglophones were working-class Irish immigrants. In the 1860s, the proportion of English-speakers reached a historic high of 40%.[22][23] The population gradually dwindled as Montreal replaced Quebec City as a center of commerce and industry. English-speakers now represent 1.9% of the total population in the Quebec metropolitan area.[24] The Morrin Centre[25] is a cultural hub for Quebec City's English-speaking community, linked together by media institutions such as the Chronicle-Telegraph,[26] CBC Radio One.[27] in Quebec City, and the La Maison Anglaise[28] bookstore.

All English-speaking communities outside the Montreal metropolitan area have been in decline for over a century. However, communities near Montreal, the border with Ontario, and the border with the USA are still large enough to constitute a sizeable yet shrinking minority in these regions.[29]

In the late 18th century and the early 19th century, the Eastern Townships and the Chateauguay Valley were pioneered by English-speaking settlers who moved north from the United States; the first were Loyalists (Tories in the U.S.) wishing to remain British subjects after The American Revolution. Very few of these Loyalists were allowed to stay in the Eastern Townships and were in fact forced by the British to move from the lands that they were squatting on because the British desired to keep the Eastern Townships as an unpopulated buffer zone between the French Canadians and the Americans. By the end of the 1790s, American homesteaders were allowed to come northward to settle lands across the border. Immigrants from England, Scotland, and Ireland would further settle these regions in the mid 19th century, and pioneer the Outaouais region (Gatineau and Pontiac region) and many Laurentian communities. By the end of the nineteenth century, many grew into thriving small cities: Shawville, Hull, Lachute, Huntingdon, St. Johns (now Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu), Granby, Saint-Hyacinthe, Victoriaville, Drummondville, Magog, Sherbrooke, Sawyerville. Migration to larger cities in Canada (including Montreal) has since reduced the English-speaking population in these regions.

There has been English-speaking settlement or immigration to some degree in almost all areas of Quebec at one time or another. What remains today in many regions is only symbolic as anglophones have moved away or assimilated into the French-speaking community. English-speaking communities in the Gaspé Peninsula and the Lower North Shore remain, as well as a small community in the Magdalen Islands.

The Canadian constitution protects the language rights of English-speaking communities and individuals in Quebec. Since 1867, Quebec had full jurisdiction over schools, with only Section 93 of the Constitution Act, 1867 guaranteeing Protestant confessional boards the right to administer most English schools. Section 133 still allows French and English to be used in the Parliament of Canada and the Legislature of Quebec and makes both languages mandatory for the laws, records, and journals of those houses. It also gives any person the right to plead in either English or French in any of the Courts of Quebec. In 1982, Section 23 of the Constitution Act, 1982 guaranteed the right of Canadian citizens educated in English in Canada to attend English schools. This paved the way[citation needed] for the Constitutional Amendment, 1999 (Québec) passed unanimously by Parliament and the National Assembly of Quebec that transformed Protestant confessional into English linguistic school boards.[31] The federal government also maintains the Official Languages Act of 1988 that ensures equality between English and French in the federal civil service, that official minority language groups in Canada receive service in their language where numbers warrant, and that supports the development of communities of speakers of official languages when they constitute a minority in a province or territory.[32]

Provincial legislation has also delimited the language rights of English-speaking Quebecers and the role of their institutions since the Quiet Revolution as French-speaking Québécois sought to improve their economic prospects, assimilate immigrants into their community to maintain their population, and establish French as a language of business. Bill 63, introduced by the Union nationale government in 1969, required that English schools provide all students with a working knowledge of French. In 1974 the Liberal government of Robert Bourassa passed Bill 22 and restricted access to English schools to children who could pass a language test. In 1977, the separatist Parti Québécois passed the more comprehensive Charter of the French Language (Bill 101). The law made French the language of the civil service and of business in private workplaces with over 50 employees, establishing the rights of all Quebecers to work in the official language of the province; it also favored a demographic shift towards more francophones in Quebec[citation needed]. The Charter was and still is seen as emancipatory and a protector of culture, and is immensely popular among francophone Quebecers.[33]

Other Charter provisions, though, deeply alienated English-speaking Quebecers[citation needed]. The Charter cut off access to English schools to all but children who had a parent who had received their education in English in Quebec. The Charter also eliminated the Constitutional guarantee to English legal proceedings, eliminated English translations of Quebec laws. It has also put in place laws stipulating that French on commercial signs needed to be the bigger font. The law has therefore polarized Quebec along linguistic lines to this day.[citation needed]Legal challenges by English-speaking Quebecers using provisions of the Canadian constitution and international law[citation needed] overturned these provisions, forcing the Quebec government to blunt these Charter provisions many times.

The Charter coupled with the looming 1980 Referendum on Sovereignty triggered an exodus of English-speaking Quebecers between 1976 and 1980[citation needed], exacerbating the already existing demographic decline. Head offices that employed anglophones moved mostly to Toronto, taking their employees with them. Structural unemployment in the private sector with the mass hiring of francophones in an expanding civil service limited the economic opportunities of especially young non-bilingual anglophones in Quebec leading them to search for work elsewhere. Young highly educated anglophones, despite high rates of bilingualism[citation needed] and increased contact and openness to francophones, cite limited economic prospects caused by perceived linguistic discrimination and an unsatisfactory political climate as the major factors in their departure. By 2001, 50% of mother-tongue anglophones had left the province.[34][verification needed]

Faced with increasing marginalization from the political process in Quebec, English-speaking community groups across the province banded together to form Alliance Quebec, a provincial lobby group that would advocate for English-language education, health, and social services. It was supported by the federal Commissioner of Official Languages and members worked with provincial administrations to maintain and increase access to English government services across the province.[35]

Sign laws governing language are a particular irritant to English-speaking Quebecers. When the original Charter provision requiring French only on commercial signs and from trade names was struck down by the Supreme Court in 1988, the Liberal government of Robert Bourrassa passed Bill 178 that made French the only language that could be used on outdoor commercial signs. This required invoking the notwithstanding clause in the Canadian Constitution, which overrode the Supreme Court decision. Discontent with the Liberals led anglophones in Western Montreal to form the Equality Party in protest, which surprised many by electing 4 candidates in the 1989 provincial election.[36] Anglophone Quebecers would take the case to the Human Rights Committee of the United Nations, which in 1993 found that the laws banning the commercial display of languages other than French constituted a violation of the right to freedom of expression. As the sign law would have to be renewed in 1993, the Liberal government passed a law that mandated French on signs. As recommended by the Supreme Court, this law allowed other languages on the sign, as long as French was predominant.[37] Although this law stands up to Supreme Court challenges, many anglophones refer to the inspectorate that enforces the law as "tongue troopers" and "language cops".[38]

Regardless of legally recognized rights, the practice in long-established institutions has often been to provide more service than what rights alone would dictate. On the other hand, a long-term trend toward providing even less service than what rights call for has been observed, especially in cases when the service-providing entity is newly created; the only recourse being to sue for redress.[citation needed]

In addition to the rights guaranteed by the constitution of Canada, the various regulations outside the Charter recognize other linguistic rights of Quebec anglophones. Quebecers have the right to receive services in English from all public health care and social service institutions in Quebec, although there is considerable controversy as to whether this is in fact the case as they often don't. The charter also permits bilingual status to cities, but only those with a majority of English mother-tongue residents; other cities are not required to provide services in English but usually do if a significant minority of the population is English-speaking. Ninety-three municipalities offer bilingual services in Quebec.

In 2002, Quebec's French Language Charter was amended with Bill 104, which aims to prevent education received in fully private English schools or through temporary certificates from producing constitutional education rights. Several court cases are still pending.

In 2001, Quebec had 340 primary and secondary English-language schools administered by nine English-language school boards. As in French-language schools, elementary education goes from Kindergarten to Elementary 6 (K-6), while high school goes from Secondary 1 to 5 (grades 7-11). The curriculum is strictly controlled by the Ministère d'Education, Quebec's provincial education ministry, and is generally identical to that offered in the French-language public school system.

The exception is language education. French is taught as a second language in English schools from Grade 1 onwards, and English is taught as a second in French schools from grade 3 onwards. English schools in the Montreal area were pioneers in French immersion and bilingual education starting in the late 1960s. As a result, they offer a range of established bilingual and short- and long-immersion programs. Programs offering both French and English curricula as a first language have recently been approved by the Ministère d'Education and are increasingly popular. English immersion programs are not common in French-language public schools.

Some English-speaking Quebecers also opt to send their children to French-language schools. As a result, programs to integrate English-speaking children into a French-speaking milieu (particularly in English-speaking areas on the West Island) are increasingly popular in French school boards, and have used in French-language private school for years.

In an addition to the public system, many private schools provide instruction in English, including schools serving religious and cultural communities. Quebec subsidizes a large portion of the tuition on the condition that they teach the provincial curriculum; almost all private schools accept these conditions and the accompanying subsidy.

Access to English-language public and semi-private education is restricted by provincial law to children who have at least one parent educated in English in Canada. Temporary residents of Quebec and English-speaking immigrants whose children have special learning needs may apply to the Ministère d'Education for permission to enter these schools. (see Charter of the French Language). Access to private schools is open to anyone who can afford the tuition.

Colleges provide 3-year career certification programs or 2-year pre-University curricula following Grade 11 (Secondary 5) high school. Most are public colleges and tuition-free; a few are subsidized private institutions. Core courses in English literature, humanities, and French represent about 25% of the curriculum. There are eight English-language Colleges, open to all Quebec residents.

English is also the language of instruction at three Quebec universities (McGill University, Concordia University and Bishop's University) that offer 3-year undergraduate programs for Quebec students graduating from college. They also offer standard 4-year programs to students from all over Canada, North America, and the world. For Quebec residents, 85% of tuition is subsidized by the provincial government. Canadian students pay differential tuition fees based on the Canadian average. Foreign students pay the full cost of their tuition, although Quebec has signed reciprocal agreements with some jurisdictions such as France, Belgium, Bavaria, and Catalonia allowing students to pay local Quebec tuition rates. McGill and Concordia offer instruction in French, and exams and assignments may be done in French at all universities.

Jacques Viger, the first mayor of Montreal, created the city’s first coat of arms in 1833. The arms consisted of a red saltire surrounded by heraldic symbols to represent the cultural makeup of the municipality at the time. While a beaver represented the French community, he added a Rose to represent those of English descent, a Shamrock for the Irish and a Thistle for the Scottish. Current and former towns with sizeable Anglophone populations such as Sherbrooke, Lachine, Saint Michel and Sainte-Cunégonde (now called Little Burgundy) also incorporated some or all of these same Anglophone symbols into their own respective arms.

While Viger’s selection of heraldic symbols aptly represented Quebec’s Anglophone population, the charges themselves were not unique Quebec inventions since they were borrowed from British heraldry. Over the years, without a truly unique symbol of their own, Quebec’s Anglophones tended to gravitate towards British icons such as the Union Jack, the Red Ensign and then later on Canada’s Maple Leaf. The flag of Montreal, where many Anglophones live, is also popular, as it resembles both the flags of Quebec and England.

Sherbrooke Coat of arms

Flag of Montreal

In Spring 2007, an article was published in Flagscan (Issue 83 – ISSN 0833-1510) suggesting that Quebec’s Anglophone population should adopt its own flag. The article noted that Francophone minority populations outside Quebec in the rest of Canada all had their own unique cultural identity flags and that the English-speaking community of Quebec should do the same. A number of possible designs were also presented. A variant of the same article was also posted over the internet.[39]

Other than British heraldic charges, Quebec’s Anglophone community still has no unique emblem representing itself that is officially recognized at any government level.